A Sort of 2025-26 Dallas Stars Season Preview: The Most and Least Important Things about Every Single Person on the Roster

Let's learn a thing or two across 5,000 words and dozens of videos

Well, the Stars have set their “Opening Night Roster” for the year, which is to say they have assembled the contracts that will allow them to do what they need to do most efficiently before flying up to Winnipeg on Wednesday.

But before you begin to upload your Roster Reaction Videos to TikTube or whatever, let me re-assure you that, no, Trey Taylor didn’t steal Lian Bichsel’s roster spot out of nowhere (in fact, Bichsel is already back on the roster as of this morning), and Harrison Scott didn’t ‘Wally Pipp’ Justin Hryckowian.

(Update: For that matter, neither will Adam Erne, whom the Stars’ signed to a league-minimum, two-way deal today. He would still have to go through waivers if sent down, but Erne provides some veteran NHL insurance early in the season with both Benn and Bäck starting out on the shelf.)

It’s all contracts and cap stuff, most of which we preemptively discussed yesterday. The one bit of new information we did glean from the Stars’ moves is that Oskar Bäck is on IR, which means he’ll be out for at least seven days with whatever is ailing him. That makes it all but certain that we’ll see Dallas add a forward or two in the near future, as we suspected they might, after putting Jamie Benn on LTIR.

But we’re not here today to discuss roster minutiae, except to explain why the below preview doesn’t focus on the roster the Stars constructed yesterday. We’re here to talk about the entire roster that we expect to play the bulk of the games this year, which is to say the group that will be introduced by Jeff K at least 41 times this year as your Dallas Stars.

So without getting bogged down any further, let’s jump right in and talk about what you absolutely need to know about every member of this team (as far as we can guess it right now, at least). And for each player, we’ll also talk about what you absolutely don’t need to know about them, but will end up knowing about them after reading this whether you wanted to know it or not. Knowledge trap!

Head Coach: Glen Gulutzan

Glen Gulutzan is returning to coach the Stars once again. He previously coached the Stars in two seasons that longtime fans refer to with fond affection by using terms like, “oh right, I think I remember that.”

After being fired by Jim Nill in one of his first major decisions as Stars GM back in 2013, Gulutzan went on what he has jokingly referred to as an extended scouting trip for the Stars in Western Canada, with stops in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton. Most recently, Gulutzan spent seven years with the Oilers as an assistant coach, including stints under former Stars bench bosses like Dave Tippet and Ken Hitchcock, the latter of whom had his own Stars reunion tour back in 2017-18.

Gulutzan is here to preach a hybrid defensive zone system and a bit more intensity and judicious physicality on a highly skilled team. He’ll be hoping his Second Time Around goes better than Hitchcock’s did.

What you absolutely don’t need to know: Glen Gulutzan has bigger biceps than you do.

Captain: Jamie Benn

Benn signed a one-year, $1 million deal (with some easily attainable performance bonuses built in) to return as Dallas’s captain after completing a massive eight-year contract he signed after winning the franchise’s only Art Ross Trophy in history back in 2014-15.

Benn suffered a collapsed lung during his first preseason game, and he is out for at least four weeks recovering from the subsequent surgery. Benn is still the unquestioned leader of this team, and his absence will be felt. But with the other leaders the Stars have in the room, they are well-prepared to deal with his absence. And whenever he returns, he’ll slot in on the left wing of whatever line needs him most. And since he’s, like, the only other actual left wing on the team besides Jason Robertson, there will probably be more than one competitor for that spot.

What you absolutely don’t need to know: Jamie Benn probably could’ve been a baseball player, and he played center field as a kid because he “liked to track down the fly balls” in his words.

When Benn and a few teammates took batting practice in Arlington a few years back, his brother Jordie managed to hit a home run, while Jamie couldn’t quite do it. But I’m sure Jordie doesn’t remind him of that fact every single time baseball comes up in conversation.

Superstar Winger: Mikko Rantanen

The Stars haven’t had a player like Mikko Rantanen in a long time, if they ever have. Rantanen is an all-time playoff performer, someone who has more points per playoff game in his career than Sidney Crosby, Nikita Kucherov, and actually every other active player aside from the Edmonton Dudes and Nathan MacKinnon.

Rantanen is an elite playmaker who can also score goals, and he’s also massive, tough, and possessed with an unparallelled work ethic off the ice. The Stars paid a fortune to acquire him and lock him up long-term last year, because players like Rantanen simply don’t become available. He is the player this team didn’t have for far too long: A True Superstar.

What you absolutely don’t do need to know: How to correctly pronounce his name, which is helpfully illustrated in the best song I have ever heard:

Top Line Winger: Jason Robertson